How hot is too hot?

[russianheman]

From what I gather on the net, it would seem my system runs way too hot, even when idling:

CPU 50 C
MB 40 C

These are the temperatures I measure in BIOS. Room temperature is usually 24 C. I leave the side case panels off to permit more air flow and the components are all dust free. I used an upgraded thermal paste but stock CPU heatsink and fan. PSU has two fans, video card has a heatsink and fan, and an extra case fan in the rear.

How hot is too hot, and will an upgraded CPU fan be enough? I would really like to put the case panels back on if I can ever get the system to cool down that much.

system specs:

ASRock A780LM MB
2Gb memory (with coolers)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
2 SATA HDDs
480w PSU
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT

 

[dfusco]

Just keep it below 60 C and you will be fine.

 

[festerovic]

Did you put the thermal paste on the CPU yourself? Did you use the stuff that came on the heatsink? That stuff sucks, you should consider something like arctic silver 5 and redoing it.

 

[poisonpanik]

What case are you using? In theory the panels being on the case should improve your cooling as the case should be designed in a way to promote air flow in a uniform direction in and then out of the case. If your cables are preventing this you may need to tie them up/bundle them to hold them out of the path of air flow.